Trumps keep Taj date, Agra misses out

AGRA: On Monday, Agra held its breath and went on pause mode. By 9am, shops had downed shutters. By 11, brisk-and-businesslike cops were ordering vehicle owners to take their parked cars out of sight. A sullen cop kicked and floored two mobikes when the owners were slow to react.

It was an afternoon of edgy anticipation. Slowly, cars and motorcycles thinned out of the roads. One could only see traffic police receptors and cops in various uniforms on mobikes and jeeps. Some kept watch from rooftops, gazing through binoculars. Onlookers were discouraged from peering from rooftops. Noise pollution dipped dramatically, barring the sound of sirens.

All this when US President Donald Trump was still making his speech in Ahmedabad.

“Many prime ministers and presidents have visited Agra to see the Taj Mahal. But I have never seen such forceful bandobast (arrangements) before,” said hotel receptionist Faizan Khan.

By 3pm, it was a strange sight of an empty road and crowded wayside. In a carefully calibrated show, thousands had lined up along the road to welcome Trump. In Tajganj, hundreds of men and women from Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual organisation, stood by the barricades. “We will be waving when the cavalcade passes by. It is our way of spreading positive energy,” said

Manish Agarwal

, who like others was dressed in all-white and wore an identification tag.

Trump arrived in Agra at 4.10pm. Around 4.40pm, the US President’s cavalcade of 20-odd cars, hurtled past Tajganj. The Trumps returned an hour later after gloating over the Taj, a poem in white marble.

The Beast, the US president’s state car, was missing in action and it left many disappointed. In fact, the entire experience of waiting for the president was underwhelming for most onlookers. They had been anticipating the event for hours and it ended before it could register in their minds.

A bunch of Class 9 students from Holy Public Junior College, who had waited to wave flags for over five hours, were tired and disappointed. “We expected the cavalcade to pass by slowly. We hoped to wave at President Trump. Forget about seeing him, we hardly had any time to wave the flags,” said student

Isha Saraswat

.

Tourists suffered in various ways. Those who had no inkling of the traffic restrictions had to walk for several kilometres from the bus stand and railway station. James Carter, who has come with his fiancée

Lesley Smith

from Christchurch, said, “We had planned to visit a nearby market in the afternoon. But after 2pm, there was complete lockdown of the route. We had to spend our entire afternoon at the hotel.”

For the past few days, the city had brightened up for the Trumps. Early Monday, there was an air of expectation in Agra. Men on motorbikes, women in burqa and girls in shimmery dress posed and pouted before the cut-outs of Trump and Modi; the PM being the preferred choice of most. The city was in the midst of a great selfie festival. But slowly the mood of

reverie

gave away. Trump left Agra for Delhi around 6.40pm. When Air Force One finally took off from Kheria Air Base, Agra exhaled.